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Fritz, Paul, LeBron James & an Olympics reminiscence for a lifetime

People competing within the U.S. for first time since Olympics this week in Cincinnati

August 12, 2024

LeBron James is without doubt one of the most recognisable individuals on the planet. When you seemed carefully on the basketball legend on tv throughout the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics, there have been close by faces acquainted to tennis followers, together with Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.

With WTA star Coco Gauff a co-flagbearer for the USA alongside James, the remainder of the tennis group was invited to the entrance of the American boat, giving them time with James and the remainder of the basketball group.

“It was actually cool. It was superior that Coco was a flagbearer, and it was superior for all of us as effectively, due to the truth that we did form of get to expertise the opening ceremonies a bit of bit in a different way than all the opposite People, as a result of we have been up entrance with the basketball gamers,” Fritz informed ATPTour.com on the Cincinnati Open, the place he’s the eleventh seed. “We have been excellent within the entrance, on the boat within the opening ceremonies. It was one of many coolest experiences.”

James, who helped lead the USA to a gold medal in males’s basketball, took a photograph with the whole American tennis contingent.

“It was cool. We have been simply using the Coco Gauff prepare. We have been solely up there due to her, so it was cool seeing her have her second,” Paul mentioned. “Clearly unreal to be a flagbearer on the Olympics, in order that was actually cool.”

The ATP tennis gamers who attended the Opening Ceremony — Fritz, Paul, Christopher Eubanks and Marcos Giron — additionally rode to the ceremony on the identical bus as their nation’s basketball group, which was a who’s who of the very best gamers on the earth.

“Being on the bus with the U.S. basketball group was actually cool, too,” Paul, the tenth seed in Cincinnati, mentioned. “We did not speak an excessive amount of to them. I talked to Jrue Vacation a bit of bit, and Derrick White, however Bron, we form of simply acquired an image with. I believe he was speaking to Coco more often than not.”

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Fritz reached the third spherical in singles and Paul superior to the quarter-finals, however they didn’t come dwelling empty handed. The People earned bronze in males’s doubles, becoming a member of silver medalists Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram as tennis medalists from the USA.

With recollections for a lifetime in hand, they’ll flip their consideration to their first event in the USA because the Olympics, the Cincinnati Open.

Fritz mentioned: “I believe earlier than the occasion even began, earlier than we have been capable of medal, simply that alone made me proud of my resolution to go.”